Coding it "old school"

For instance, "no one can ever tell you what a UML diagram means."

If you're old like I am, this is so true. Maybe it's true for everyone.

This article is about how some of the old-timers at Microsoft still program with their good ole text editor. I am not the Luddite that some may be, but my take on MDD (model-driven development) is that it might be good in the initial stages of layout and design, but at some point you're gonna have to lay some lines of code. And it can't do shit for that problem.

A buddy was kvetching today at lunch about how his new architect wants him to crank out a bunch of UML (unified modeling language) diagrams of the application he's been working on. He said the guy was "old school" but I don't think we did UML diagrams back when I started writing code (i.e., back in the real old school). Shit, we didn't even know anything about OOAD (object-oriented analysis and design) back then. I think it was just being invented, or something. (So, by the way, was UNIX. Sorta.)

I am not against more advanced methods of programming, but as Don Box said when they asked: "But when there are 500 things, [graphical programming] is completely unusable. You zoom in and zoom out and you lose all context. I think it's just smokin' dope." It's also difficult to fully fathom something when it's some hundred-friggin-thousand lines of code, but if the code is done well, you can look at individual methods (about 10 to 50 lines) to fathom them, then upward through the stack until you reach the top. So, it's not all bad.

I wish my friend good luck with all those UML diagrams. I told him he should get the damn architect to do them. That should keep the guy busy for at least 6 months, or more. Just about right, IMO.

Karmic Koala Netbook Remix - bug update

A little while ago I blogged about some of the bugs I encountered when I installed the Karmic Koala Netbook Remix on my Acer netbook. Here's the run-down:

1. I never got past the upgrade installation glitch. Instead I booted from the CD and installed Karmic from there. I upgraded my desktop over the web. It only took about 5 hours to download the whole thing via my wireless network, but it worked.
   
2. I installed the Ubuntu 9.10 boot enhancement stuff, which has improved boot time, but it's still not as zippy as Jaunty was. Better, though.
3. I'm getting used to the new login screen. It actually contains more information and some options, so it's not as bad as I originally reported.
4. No more menu ghosts. I think they fixed this problem.
5. There still isn't a File System shortcut, but I'm getting over that one, as well. We must be adaptive to change, you know.
6. They have also fixed the touchpad glitch. It now stays disabled, which I am grateful for. I'm weird, I know, but I don't like touchpads. Oh, and I can work my Logitech Nano V450 mouse against my leg. It will almost work on any surface, even a rather nappy blanket.
7. I still don't know how to remove some of the stray icons, but I no longer care as much.
8. They have obviously changed the battery time calculations, but in net it still gets almost 5 hours of battery life.

I have completely bagged Firefox on Linux, and now use Google Chrome (even in beta it works very well) as my browser. I can't wait until they introduce some plugins, especially one that blocks adverts.

I want to commend the folks who fixed some of these bugs so damn quickly! There is no chance whatsoever that a commercial software company would have been so rapid in their response. I think I'm catching on to this new way of thinking: To get the über rapid fixes, you might have to put up with the occasional stray glitch.

On a semi-related side note, Songbird refused to work on my desktop machine under Jaunty. But now with Karmic (Desktop version) it works quite well there, as well. I like Songbird for playing music, except that it doesn't remember the current playlist between executions. That's an almost taken-for-granted feature of other players like MediaMonkey and WinAmp. Sadly, both of those are Windows-only players.

Hello from Google Chrome (on Linux)

It isn't yet ready for public release, but Google has the latest development build nicely packaged for flavors of Linux that can install from a .deb file. Ubuntu (I have Karmic Koala--the Netbook Remix) is one of the flavors of Debian, so installing Chrome was fairly easy.

When installing it asked about importing Firefox settings, which I assumed meant bookmarks (among other things). It may have imported other things, but not my Firefox bookmarks.

It also wouldn't launch the first time, but I grep'ed the processes and killed them, then relaunched it with success. I'm writing this blog post from Chrome. In a few minutes I'll see if it can be shut down and relaunched.

It's very fast by comparison, certainly faster than Firefox, but I wonder how it will perform once it's loaded down with all the crap we usually hang on Firefox. Probably still better.

I understand the Windows version is further along, and you can easily download and install it. I probably won't do this, right away. But, as for many things, who knows?

Karmic Koala Netbook Remix - bugs #1

I won't bore everyone with all the details, but here are some of the defects I've observed with the Karmic Koala (9.10) Netbook Remix:

1. Installation: The first time I inserted the CD, it asked me if I wanted to upgrade to the new distribution. For one reason or another, I elected not to, but it never asked me again. Furthermore, When I tried to run Update Manager to perform the upgrade, it kept insisting I had the wrong CD mounted. The volume name != the distribution "official" name. What a pain! I had to perform a clean install of Karmic. Ubuntu scores a big fat zero on the upgrade front, for that one.
   
2. It seems to boot slower. If it gets much slower, and it will be right up there with Windows. Can't have that, can we?
3. I don't like the new login screen. Perhaps it can be changed, but take me back to the older one, in Jaunty.
   
4. Sometimes the menu applet develops "ghosts"; artifacts from other menus that show behind the current menu page at half intensity. I have tried to duplicate this reliably, but can't. To be fair, I also saw this behavior with Jaunty (9.04).
5. I figured out that the folders sub-menu works from the favorites you set up in the file explorer. Too bad you can't add other things, like the "File System" root folder that was present in Jaunty. I dunno, I liked that feature.
6. The mouse and touchpad system admin functions are separated. Fine, but touchpad admin keeps losing the settings. The touchpad keeps turning back on, and this is a big pain for me. I always use the mouse. Having the mouse move because of my clumy hands is ... well, unhappy.
   
7. I don't like the gray color of the top system area. At least before, it was colorful, and I see no reason to make it boring, again. BTW, how do I remove some of the items that appear there? I haven't quite figured this out, yet.
8. The battery time calculator is somewhat too "twitchy." When I resumed my machine after some time in hibernate mode, it said I had a really exorbitant amount of time left, then corrected itself after awhile. That said, battery life seems a tad better.
   

This list is just what I discovered via my reinstall and subsequent tweaking on Saturday and Sunday. I was already using Firefox 5.4 and Open Office 3.1, so this upgrade did not affect the apps I use most often. In general, though, I like the updated look, though in retrospect I would go back to Jaunty based on my experiences. Perhaps next time (next upgrade, I mean) I'll wait until more of the initial release bugs are fixed.

All hail the Karmic Koala

If you don't know who (er, what) Karmic Koala is, I will gladly educate. Karmic Koala is the upcoming Ubuntu 9.10 release, which came out October 29, 2009. With all the press talking about Windows 7, this latest update from Canonical has all but been lost in the noise.

But fair enough. Why should you (or anyone) care?

Believe it or not, for most purposes (that is, the purposes most people put to their computers) Ubuntu Linux works quite well. Web browsing (Firefox), email (Evolution, Thunderbird, etc.), Word Processing (Open Office), music (scads of apps, but Rhythmbox is very popular). It even comes with a torrent peer, ZIP/RAR file tool, PDF display tool, and the list of available applications certainly doesn't end there. The really cool thing is that all these applications are cost free. You ain't got to pay anyone a dime to use 'em. Contrast that to Windows. The lack of any need for virus protection, alone, should make a difference.

Just today I installed Ubuntu Karmic Netbook Remix on my netbook, and though getting everything set up again has taken most the afternoon, I'm basically quite pleased with the new look. My ongoing objective is to keep the netbook lean, clean, and relatively uncustomized in order to make future upgrades smoother and simpler.

One new feature is Ubuntu One, which is 2GB of "free" cloud storage integrated into Ubuntu. That would be fine with me, except: 1) it's not encrypted, and 2) the file upload blew up both times I tried it. Maybe I'll try again later, but so far it doesn't look very promising. Stay tuned, I may post more as I have more to post.

Decided

The other day I waxed poetic about whether to replace Ubuntu desktop on my netbook, or to continue as I had been going. I have decided.

I installed the "Netbook Remix" version of Ubuntu 9.04 ("Jaunty Jackalope"). It's nice, though I did like the multiple desktop feature of the regular version. On my home desktop machine (the one with two monitors), having two desktops isn't very important. Actually, each monitor is represented on each desktop. On the tiny 10" diagonal netbook screen, a second desktop was a handy thing.

In the Netbook Remix version, you get a full-screen menu thingy that shows all the programs as large icons on a series of pages. Same basic menu structure that you can customize to add items, remove items, and make items invisible, as well. Yeah, I know you can do this in Windows; it's different in Ubuntu, but equivalent.

Everything opens up maximized, and there's no menu bar across the top that you can add things to. I rather liked that feature of the desktop version, since I put most of the programs I used often on the bar. The remix has a "Favorites" tab that I've done the same thing with. On the other hand, a single click launches things off the menu thingy.

I tried out the newer version, "Karmic Koala," (version 9.10) which is in alpha version 4. The menu thingy crashed on shutdown both times I booted. I also liked the look of the new version, better, but I decided I would rather be productive than always sending crash reports to the folks working on the OS. No offense, but this is a "production" machine for me, not something to experiment with. Note that I am writing this blog post on my netbook. Not that that's something remarkable, despite the fact I've remarked about it.

Perhaps once they've gone gold with 9.10, I will upgrade to it, since restoring all the (useful) applications onto my netbook took only about 3 or 4 hours. Most of what I use already comes with the distro, which is one really nice--dare I say huge--advantage of Ubuntu. There's nothing else (or hardly anything else) to install. It comes with Firefox, Open Office, no fewer than 3 or 4 email clients, Pidgin IM client, and about 25 games. There are many other programs included and/or available. Oh, and did I mention that everything's free?

Free, as in beer. Let's not discount that.

Of course beforehand I off-loaded everything onto a portable hard drive. I have a (relatively) new Seagate Free Agent 250 GB hard drive. Nice small, quiet drive. I reformatted it to ext3 (though that's not entirely straightforward to do in Linux), so it serves as yet one more place where I store stuff. You can never have too many backups. Trust me. Device support in Linux is better than in Windows.

Another useful side-effect of having a Linux netbook is my ever-increasing familiarity with the Linux command-line. That's another thing that the average Windows user never gets to experience. (Too bad.) Of course, I will admit that it's not entirely necessary that every user become familiar with the command line, but if you are it does make many things quite a bit easier. Or maybe it's just because I haven't learned about all the GUI tools that do the same things. *nix was built by geeks who used the command line, and it shows. And that's a good thing.

Not sure what else I can report, except that everything works (including the webcam). What else can I say? I recommend Ubuntu as a solid alternative to Windows.

Decisions, decisions

Who knew? Turns out I installed the "regular" version of Ubuntu 9.04 (aka "Jaunty Jackalope") on my Acer netbook. But they have a "Netbook Remix" version that's been optimized for smaller screens. And, uh, they were right; it's cooler.

I followed the instructions for loading the distro on a memory stick. I so happen to have a 4 GB jump drive I don't use, so I copied the image to it. It's just shy of 1 GB, and seems to include pretty much everything you need. My netbook booted from the jump drive with no problems, even. I rather like the look, though I wasn't all that unhappy with what I had, before.

*sigh* As I said: decisions, decisions. I'm quite tempted to replace what I've loaded (and spent hours getting set up) with this new distro version. But no decisions tonight. Stay tuned.

Oh, in case you haven't figured it out by now, Linux is pretty cool and so is Ubuntu, as well.

Gadget love update

A little while ago I posted my annual "summer gadget love" update, outlining some of the interesting tech toys I have acquired. I thought I'd provide a few updates.

1. My Vantec hard drive docking station ("drive toaster") has essentially died after a year. It keeps unmounting and mounting the drive all by itself, which is damned irritating.
2. I am replacing it with a fan-cooled hard drive enclosure from Rosewill. Newegg customers seem to give it a big thumb's up. I will let you know. It's not quite as "cool" as the drive toaster, but might be a tad more reliable. I priced other drive toasters online, and this fan-cooled enclosure is right about the same price, so I thought I'd give it a try.
3. Amarok is crap as a media player. On my netbook I'm now using Songbird. Since it's a Mozilla app there are about a million plugins (well, maybe a few less than that) so I've been able to get it set up the way I want it. It doesn't seem to work on my home desktop machine, so there I use Rhythmbox. When I run Windows I use MediaMonkey. No other media player even comes close to MediaMonkey.
4. Truecrypt file encryption software. It runs on Linux and Windows. I have tested it on both platforms, and the encrypted data is readable in both places. You can "format" entire drives as encrypted drives, or create container files for encrypted data. I am still a little unsure that I would put my only backup of a file into a Truecrypt-encrypted container, but if I have private stuff that I want to keep private, it looks like the hot tip. Getting my portable hard drive stolen from work got me to thinking about this.
   
5. KeePass, and KeePassX. Password encryption helpers, runnable on Windows and Linux. Not quite as functional as RoboForm, but free. There are plugins for KeePass to make it work with various browsers, but I haven't tried them, yet. I do need a password encryption solution that runs on Windows and Linux, so stay tuned.
6. LaCie 250GB portable hard drive, already inactive at Newegg. This little drive isn't quite as functional as the drive that was stolen, but it's small and light and fast. The USB cable retracts into the case, though it's only about 3 inches (8 cm) long. So far it's working fine, but I do have concerns about the retractible cable. It does come with an extension, however.
   
7. Verizon Wireless USB760 G3 cell modem--no link. Doesn't frigging work on Linux. Supposedly you can get it to work, but I have not, so I am returning it. It was sold to me as working on Linux, but obviously he lied. Maybe in another year, or so, the major carriers will have this figured out.

My Transcend 160GB portable hard drive was stolen off my desk at work. Too bad, it was a really good little drive. The replacement is so far working well, but I have my doubts since Newegg discontinued it so ... quickly. We'll see.

A tale of two keyboards

It was the best of keyboards; it was the worst of keyboards ...

All right, that's not accurate. I saw this article extolling the virtues of the IBM Model M keyboard, vintage 1984. It made me think of my own "vintage" and downright indestructible keyboard, but mine was made by NEC, and I bought it new with an 386Sx, 16 Mhz NEC computer back in 1991. Yeah, it came with Windows 3.0, which I quickly upgraded to Windows 3.1. The computer is long gone, but the keyboard (nearly identical in appearance to the Model M, but not quite as heavy or with the same distinctive clicking sound) is still on my desktop, and still going strong 18 years later.

In the article the guy takes his keyboard apart, but I wouldn't have the guts to do that to mine. I'd be afraid I'd break it, and then where would I be? I probably do need to dust it out, but otherwise it's still fine. Yeah, I do like to brag about it, because I've used it a lot, and it has yet to have a single failure of any kind.

So there.

Interesting rant about Mono

I have just recently made the "jump" to Ubuntu (a Linux distribution for PCs of all sizes). First of all, it's great, and for most users, it does nearly everything you might want. That's right, for all but a few that must use Microsoft applications like Office, or that must use programs like Quicken, it has everything you need to be productive. This is especially true if all you do is surf the web, email, and maybe write a term paper or two. For these it has Firefox, Thunderbird, and Open Office. All three are very good, and I use them all. (And all are included in the Ubuntu distro download.)

Mono is a development framework based on Microsoft .NET, and has sparked a rather rabid religious war on the Linux forums. Everyone has an opinion, it seems, and folks on both sides are calling for the death and expulsion of anyone who disagrees with them. Well, maybe not literal death, but certainly expulsion. Yes, like the war between religion and atheism, Mono advocates are the atheists to the Linux "purists." The spawn of Satan that must be eliminated at all costs.

So, when I read this post discussing why Mono really isn't evil, I thought of religious wars.

My opinion of Mono is that it's arguably based on the standards that Microsoft sought when they published .NET. Steve Ballmer's idiotic comments aside (because he really is a huge, smelly asshole), if MS didn't want Mono around, they could have/should have taken steps to prohibit its development. Such as not having made the .NET CLR architecture a standard. *sigh*

Nothing will get the Linux homos more riled than something with the taint of Microsoft. Not even calling them homos will do that (and I'm smiling when I say that, fellas). Java ain't as great as everyone says it is, and there needs to be an alternative. If Mono provides the ability to develop quality software for distros like Ubuntu, then as a user I'm all for it. Shoot, being technical means I might also do some Linux/KBE development myself. Could be fun.

Summer 2009 "Gadget Love" Review

This year's review is chock-full of cool, interesting stuff. It's going to be quite a challenge just to remember everything I've acquired since last year's review, but since I have some very interesting stuff to review, I'll just get right to it:

1. Acer Aspire One AOD150 Netbook. This is my latest new toy. For $329 from Amazon.com this 10" diagonal screen netbook (think: mini-laptop) is a pretty nice little machine. It comes with 1 GB memory and 160 GB hard drive. It also came with Windows XP SP3, but as we'll discuss, below, that isn't relevant for me. I tried out several other netbooks, including the ASUS eeePC 1000 HA (which had been my odds-on prior choice). This device has by far the very best keyboard of the dozen or so I tried. It's a little bit cramped and some of the navigation keys are oddly placed, but overall I like it a lot. Except I hitting the Fn key instead of the Ctrl key. Drat!
   
2. Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope." Free download from Ubuntu.com. Unless you have to have Microsoft Office (I have a friend who definitely needs it) or you are running some funky application only available for the Windows platform, this GUI OS is (and has) everything you need. Firefox, Open Office, media software, etc. It installs in under 1/2 hour. Boots faster than XP, and did I mention you don't need to worry about anti-virus software? I can mount all my USB portable drives, and I've even set it up for automated on-line backup, although it's not from Carbonite.
   
3. Unison file synchronization utility. Not as flexible as I'd like it to be, but it seems to work. You can't delete a "profile" or even change it once you've set it up.
4. AmaroK media player. It's no MediaMonkey, but it plays files from Jamendo and Magnatune (two of my favorite on-line sites). Of course, so will MediaMonkey, and its library organization capabilities are el fabuloso. I had to locate and install the right media codecs, which was initially a pain, but once I got them installed it simply works.
5. Garmin Nuvi 260W GPS. Very nice. Touch screen, and it actually speaks the street and highway names as you go. It's got features I haven't even used. I bought it last fall for about $200, and it's worth every penny. Amazon.com has them right now for $160.
6. Logitech V450 Nano and V470 mouses. The V450 has a teeny-tiny wireless dongle that probably won't get broken off, at least not easily. I now have two of these (one for my at-home desktop, and one for my new netbook). The V470 is the Bluetooth version of the same mouse. I use it on my work laptop, and of course it has no dongle.
7. Jabra A320s USB Bluetooth adapter. I use it with my Jabra BT620s stereo headphones. Works well, though I don't use it that often. The right earpiece will control the media player, as well.
8. Samsung USB portable DVD/CD writer. Works so far. I needed it for my netbook to install Ubuntu. I haven't tried it for burning, but I have no reason to think it won't work.
9. Jungledisk on-line backup. I am paranoid of losing stuff, so I signed up for this service to make sure my netbook documents are regularly backed up. It's relatively cheap, but so far I haven't done much with it.
10. Hitachi SATA 1 TB hard drive. I bought this for about $100 from Newegg.com. I replaced the hard drive in my home desktop (it was a measly 160 GB). Works like a charm, even though it seemed to run very hot when I had it in the portable drive dock (that I regularly use for my 500 GB backup hard drive).
11. I had been using the eSATA connection for the "external" hard drive (the drive dock is like a hard drive toaster--the drive just sticks up on end), but that connection isn't removable like USB, and I couldn't boot my computer without the drive attached. Overall, not worth it for the extra speed. Not that it was even all that much faster. I get about 20 MB/sec with the USB connection.
    

This list isn't as long as last year's, but given the oodles of software on the netbook that I haven't tried, yet, I may have another review for those things.

OK, here are some more stats for the Acer D150: Wired and wireless networking. 1.3 MP web cam, microphone (I have not tried either one of these). It has 3 USB 2.0 ports, and a 6-cell LiIon battery that lasts up to 8 hours. 2.95 lbs fully loaded. I prefer the external mouse, but the metal touch pad isn't too bad. Speakers sound pretty good. They seem to be under the front of the base. The palm rest area (below the keyboard) seems to get a tad warm, but I'm somewhat used to that. The case is shiny black, but the bezel around the keyboard is brushed aluminum. Cool, and it doesn't show fingerprints.

Lastly, this post was composed on it. Tight, but workable.

Warning, techie joke ahead: the venerable stored procedure

I like The Daily WTF because it's ... well, often very funny. Today's funny involves a totally "proper," but insane use of a database stored procedure.

Yeah, management decreed that stored procedures were to be used, but failed to explain exactly why they were important. Of course you might guess that in this article they got it wrong. I would explain it, but it would take too long, and then the joke wouldn't be funny anymore.

Not, of course, that it's funny now.

Cory Doctorow: A DRM Dissertation

If you've been on the Internet in the past few years, you'd be hard-pressed to have not heard of Cory Doctorow. He also writes for BoingBoing, as well. This article may not be new, but it's ever so relevant. It happens to be directed at Microsoft, but Sony (and others) are also prominently mentioned.

I can only wonder if the buggy whip manufacturers association were as powerful as the music industry; we'd all be paying a buggy whip avoidance tax on every new automobile, and be paying an entire industry to exist without contributing any value whatsoever. And yes, music industry, I'm looking at you!

*Snort!*

First, let me say that this is a joke. (click the image for the full-size version) A very funny joke if you're a techie.

Cool object lesson in the benefits of Open Source

Without getting into a discussion about how Open Source is funded and developed (it must be worth something to someone, or it would have died by now), here is a short article about the benefits that can be derived from using a tool where the source code is freely available. Yeah, it's technical and probably not of much interest to non-programming types, but it does hint at the difference in motivation between your average JBoss developer and your average Windows developer. Well, maybe not for the average developer ... but you get the idea.

Real-life Dilbert manager quotes

Since I'm an IT architect, this list of real PHB* quotes is particularly funny. I may have heard some of these a time or two, but the real funny I run into all the time is a business-imposed deadline that has no reason they are willing to share with us. And us IT folks are supposed to be "partners" with the business. Partners as long as you're doing what they ask, when they want it, and for the amount of money they're willing to pay.

Yes, "moving at the speed of business" is our most favorite oxymoron.

* Pointy-Haired Boss

Something I learned about software development

While the title might suggest this post is something most non-technical people would find boring, let me reassure you this lesson has nothing to do with computers or software development. I just learned it while doing software development.

This post on The Daily WTF (Worse Than Failure) sparked it.

OK, so here is what I've learned:

If you have a problem to solve, ask yourself first if this problem is something that many others have had to solve in the past. Also ask yourself if, because of the extreme commonality of the problem, there might be a tool, or a ready-made solution out there, somewhere, that you might get your hands upon. And use.

Chances are good that if you have a nail to drive into a board, there's something already invented to do that. All you have to do is obtain the tool, and voila! you've solved your problem. I can't tell you how many times I've encountered some supposedly smart programmers who think there's no handy-dandy already-written routine available for comparing two dates. Or anything else really stupidly simple, like that. And I'll bet some of the more interesting, complicated problems also have solutions, as well. Particularly if they have been encountered before.

Yeah, I know my words of wisdom are pretty lame. But you'd be surprised how hard a really simple thing can be.

Mystery Meat Navigation

OK, this will be a short post. Maybe. Oh, and it's also a rant, of sorts.

I prefer to keep scripting turned off for almost every site I visit. No popups, no auto-downloaded trash, little advertising ... you get the idea. In my humble opinion, it's like using a condom--it only makes good sense if you're going to engage in questionable behavior. Like surfing the web.

I really hate sites that rely on JavaScript just to function properly. What? Do they think the whole world uses Internet Exploder? Apparently. That said, I don't mind some really useful sites with good reputations, like Amazon.com, using JavaScript. I mean, if I'm going to send them my money, I guess I trust them not to abuse the web relationship. My rule is: if I don't know you, you don't get access to my script engine. Period.

So I surfed to Vincent Flanders' site Web Pages That Suck where he talks about Myster Meat Navigation (MMN). Ironically, you have to use JavaScript on his site just to see all the sucky examples he has. Wow. Ironic. But I digress.

Why can't web sites use plain, simple links that tell you where they lead? I do. My web site doesn't use any script, for any reason. It could be that I don't know how to code JavaScript, but that's not particularly relevant. "Plain old" html works pretty well, and combined with CSS, you can make an attractive site with sizeable fonts and adjustable margins that doesn't--and won't--get in the way of the person visiting. I think that's what's important. Don't you?

Flash animation has its advantages. It also sucks big time if you use it for your home page, because as a non-script webaholic, I feel like I'm the blind man in the world of the stupid. I can't see your wonderful flash-based site, so I just click away. We both miss out.

And another thing. What's up with not having a site that a page reader can simply read? What's up with having text that can't be sized? I dunno about you, but something is really wrong with web site design if they think these types of sites are good.

OK, not so short. But you get the point.

Summer 2008 "Gadget Love" Review

Seems the last time I posted about my gadget addiction was about 1 1/2 years ago. I did post about my bad experiences with a Logitech G7 "gaming" mouse back in October, and about some of my experiences with various word processing programs, but other than that (and my "new" speakers) it's been a rather long hiatus. So, without resorting to jokes about "my long hiatus" (heh), here is my latest installment of "Gadget Love":

1. iPod Nano 3G. I have the 8GB one; silver/white. Very cool little device. Works very well, sounds very good. Plays most MP3s that I've tried. I did not buy this thing, it being a gift from my employer, but I can still recommend it as a really good and really portable music player. I have something over 7,000 songs in my MP3 library, so I have plenty to listen to. It holds about 1,000 songs at the hefty bitrate I like to use. I have the Belkin leather iPod case. Not bad.
   
2. To go with the iPod, I bought the Belkin TuneCommand AV docking station with remote. Plugs into your stereo (or any powered speakers with dual RCA jacks, or if you buy the right cable). The remote can move between songs in the current playlist and adjust the volume. You cannot navigate to/from the iPod menu. That you still have to do by hand. I did not pay $150 for it, mind you. A month ago it was $49 from the big A.
   
3. Western Digital Caviar 500GB WD5000AAKS SATA disk drive. $85 at NewEgg.com. Who knew a bare-bones hard drive could be a "portable"? Because ...
   
4. Vantec NexStar hard drive dock. Available from ThinkGeek.com. USB or eSATA docking station for any 3 1/2 or 2 1/2 inch form factor hard drive. Yeah, I have it plugged into a USB port on my computer, and the 500GB hard drive is the external backup for my computer. Has a power supply and an eSATA cable with PCI adapter. Presumably I could hook it up that way. We'll see. I get 20MB/sec transfer when backing up files.
   
5. Kingston DataTraveler 8GB thumb drive. Has a retractable USB plug, so it doesn't need a cap (that can get lost). Faster than my old Seagate 5GB mini hard drive (which got dropped so I decided to retire it before it broke for good). So far (1 month use) it has been 100% reliable. And $30, too.
   
6. Cannot recommend the OCZ 4GB drive I reviewed 18 months ago. Loses files. Most disappointing. Buy the Kingston, instead.
7. I use D-Link USB hubs. I have two, and they simply work.
8. I have an ancient Iomega 80GB external hard drive I bought maybe 5-6 years ago (really!!). It still works flawlessly, and it runs virtually 100% of the time, backing up my wife's computer. My old ZIP drive finally broke, and it looks like it cannot be replaced, but from my experience Iomega makes good stuff.
9. MediaMonkey music library organizer and player. Not as good a player as Winamp, which I also own, but organizes your music library like a madman. It will use Winamp as a player, but can't show you what files you have queued up in the Now Playing window. You have to look at Winamp to know that info. Very sophisticated user interface, with very few bugs.
10. GoodSync backup/sync software. Made by the same people who make RoboForm, Siber Systems. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but this is a must if you want a tool that can/will keep your portable thumb drive sync'ed with your hard drive, and it with your backup drive, etc. I own 3 copies (one for my home computer, one for my work laptop, and one for my wife's computer). It's very easy to set up, and it is foolproof and option-filled, for the inveterate geeks among us.
11. Logitech V450 Nano mouse. Sexy and black. Just bought this to replace my aged Logitech MX1000 laser mouse that was starting to miss clicks. I believe I really do like the smaller mice better than the larger ones. This mouse is designed for laptops, and the USB dongle is ... in a word, tiny. Has 2 AA batteries, wich they claim will last a year.
12. Gave my Logitech V320 mouse to my wife. No, no problem with it, she just needed a cordless mouse for her work laptop, and I already had my VX mouse I've been using. I bought the V320 because it's symmetrical, and I could use it left-handed (the V450 is also symmetrical). Nice mouse, and stows the dongle underneath.
    
13. Shure E2c earbuds. I'm sure they work for some people. I could not find a small enough sleeve or foam to fit my ear comfortably, or that didn't want to fall out almost immediately. Yeah, I know--yr doin it rong. Fuck that. Personally, the cheapie earphones that came with the iPod work better, and they don't fall out as easily. I probably shouldn't trash these puppies, but $70 should buy a better fit than none at all. I use the Sennheiser PX100 on-the-ear headphones at work. They are primo, but your ears get sore after a few hours.
    
14. Plantronics Explorer 350 Bluetooth headset. It works, but you have to charge it using the USB adapter cable--there's no other way. Also, it picks up a lot of ambient noise, which might be expected.
    
15. Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE sound card. Had to buy this to replace the crapped-out one that came with my computer. Cheap enough, and it seems to work, but I think next time I might invest more money in a better quality card.
    

That's about it, for now. I have tried/used other gadgets and pieces of software, but nothing I'm still using regularly, or that I would care to mention.

Look for a new music review, soon. I've been obtaining a lot of (free and legal) download music in addition to my regular purchases of albums from the Amazon.com MP3 download site. Also discovered the OGG format, but only Jamendo seems to get it right. Their MP3 encodings are often distorted, which bums me out greatly.

So, look for other stuff, soon.

Programmer humor

diskseekd

And you all thought programmers had no sense of humor. This article is quite funny, and on more than one level. I can haz meta-humor?

Programmers have tremendous senses of humor. We have to, to keep from freakin' killin' the idiot project manager in the next cube. But you did not hear me say that out loud.

Newbie ZIP code database mistake ... see if you can guess what it is

So, what happens when you put a novice in charge of defining your database schema? You get ZIP codes (really, postal codes) defined as integers. And what do you think happens when a downtstream consumer gets the data (formatted as a string)? CT starts looking a lot like MN, or some other place whose ZIP code doesn't start with a zero.

Oh, and they propagated this error all the way up through their outwardly-facing interface, too. I guess I'm just glad we don't have any Canadian or European customers.

End-of-the-month Status Update

Here we are again. Another February gone by, and what do we have to show for it?

Let's see:

1. I was sick for about 8 days with some kind of flu/serious cold. All better now except the cough is still hanging around. Yeah. I missed almost an entire week of work. Major suckage.
   
2. I finally got my promotion (and accompanying raise). No suckage. Can you say discretionary income?
   
3. I switched to Open Office 2.3.1 for my writing, then bagged it because of a couple of problems saving my document, then went back to MS Word 2007 (which works pretty well), then decided to go back to Open Office. No suckage. Just indecision.
   
4. With respect to the story (A Far Sun or here, too), I had to put it down while I was sick, so I was stalled and it took a whole week to get back into it. I got it started again and now I'm past 86,000 words. I have a really good confrontation/crisis happening, which will help lead up to Act III. No suckage.
   
5. I changed fonts in the manuscript, so my 86K words are now about 306 pages. Act I is 115 pages, so ... that means the whole thing should be about 460 pages. Unless I change fonts, again. Or decide it needs to be longer, or something. Again, no suckage.
   
6. My home computer speakers, (Altec Lansing) which have served me exceedingly well for about 4 years, are gradually crapping out. Sad, sad, suckage. However, I have purchased primo replacements. No suckage. But to make room I now need to clean up my home office, which has borne the brunt of my procrastinatory slothage for quite some time. Self-induced suckage. But, just think how much better I'll feel when everything is all clean. Huzzah!
   
7. I looked into online/remote backup programs/services. Huh. Major suckage. The first company had a stupid restriction about writing or saying anything about them without their prior written approval. Adversarial, so I ran. The next company was nice and friendly, but their backup program crashed about 20% through my 2G free backup. Uh, no sale there, either. They shall remain nameless.
   
8. I found a not-free program that can sync and/or backup (though not online or remotely) any kind of files I want. Very simple to use and so far it appears to work. I have it backing up documents and stuff every half hour. It's called GoodSync, and you may have heard of it if you know RoboForm. No suckage.
   

While we're on the subject of writing, I must say I really like Open Office. Current version is 2.3.1, and you can download the whole suite from here, quite easily. There's also a portable version that I find eminently suitable for my laptop (where I have it installed on my external 80G USB hard drive). Install the Portable App menu/launcher, because you'll want to install a bunch of other free portable applications (which include WinAmp, Firefox, and Thunderbird, among others). On second thought, just get the whole Portable Apps Suite and be done with it.

MS Word still has some features this program lacks, but there are cool features in Open Office Writer that Word doesn't have. First, you can modify the colors (page background, text, etc.) as it displays on the screen. Like the blue background and yellow text of WordPerfect for DOS? You can have it. I like a pale yellow background for the page. Enhanced contrast and all that good stuff. Among other features, F5 brings up a navigational window where you can navigate to chapter headings, page numbers, bookmarks, you name it. Let's see, I did have some issues with "smart quotes," but solved them. Seems some fonts don't support fancy, curly quote marks quite as fully as you might want. (Can you say Optima?)

Oh, did I mention that it stores documents in Open Document format? This is an XML format, but they are stored compressed so they're about 1/4 the size of the same documents in Word format. I cannot speak for Word 2007 format, but Word 2007 is much more efficient storing documents in Word 2003 format (.DOC extension) than Word 2003 is, itself. Yes, we're talking 200K .ODT vs. about 1M .DOC. There is a plugin (two of them, actually) to permit Word to load/save in ODF. Open Office Writer itself loads and saves in Word 2000 format (.DOC), should you feel the urge. The coolest thing about Open Office is that it's free. I may have an MSDN subscription, permitting me "free" copies of almost all Microsoft stuff, but not everyone is so "blessed".

I am a font geek. I also change my tastes from time to time, and believe it or not the choice of font is important to the written piece. Times New Roman should be banned, along with Arial. I never want to see either of them, ever again.

In my story, I had been using a Microsoft font called Consolas, that MS released for use with Visual Studio 2005, which I happen to have. This is a very nice fixed-spacing font, really good for programming (duh), and I have no complaints about it. I also really like Maiandra GD, which comes with MS Office, I believe. It almost makes a good book font, too. Now, though, I've switched to Myriad Web Pro, from Adobe, a font I purchased as part of a font collection. It's a nice Gothic-looking font (think Century Gothic or Franklin Gothic, you get the idea) with good balance between dark and light that enhances its readability. Yes, really.

For classic book fonts, I most heartily recommend Garamond and Palatino. Many books have been published in these fonts. I used both of these for my earlier novelistic attempt. You can't go wrong, but for my story they just don't quite make it. Not for the first draft, anyway.

So, another cold-ish February is by the boards. Let's see where I can get to by the end of March.

Life with a Logitech G7 mouse

OK. I have used the Logitech G7 gaming mouse for some time, now. Though I don't use it for gaming, I have done quite a bit of CAD work (CAD design is a "TLA acronym"), and I thought this super-sleek mouse would do the trick.

Wonderful mouse. Horrible, terrible, abominable battery design. (OK, John, tell us how you really feel!)

Logitech equipped this mouse with a flat, rectangular battery "pack" that slips quickly and easily into the mouse underbelly. Hah! But it lasts about 6-8 hours under continuous "Spider Solitaire" use. I have wondered if the battery was designed to last just as long as it takes to recharge it. Because this mouse comes with 2 batteries: one to live in the combination charger/2.4Ghz wireless port (that connects via USB cable to the computer), and one to live in the mouse. You definitely want to turn it off when not in use. That extends the battery life considerably. But the experience of having to continually and frequently replace the freaking mouse battery pack is incredibly annoying. Because it goes dead red right in the middle of whatever you're working on. And one battery doesn't like to connect to the charger without futzing with it, so that's annoying, as well. You would really hate not having a charged battery ready, wouldn't you? See?

OK (I said that already). I did a quick search on Logitech's web site for their latest and greatest in mouses, and noticed this mouse isn't listed anymore. No surprise, there. I'm sure my experience is reflected (and amplified, as well) 1000 times over by all those disappointed gamers out there who probably now despise this badly-designed contraption.

Don't misunderstand. I love the mouse as a pointing device. Comfortable, balanced, and with enough buttons to keep the most ardent mouse geek occupied for days.

So, what replaces the G7 as the ultimate mouse? This Star Wars spacecraft-looking thing. Of course there's also the wired G9. I already have a G5, but the left-click button fails to click about 50% of the time. I won't risk buying another one of those. I also have both the VX and MX Revolutions. I gave the MX to my wife. She seems to like it, but it hurt my hand to use. The VX I use with my notebook at work. Nice mouse. Compact, comfortable. Battery (single conventional AA battery) lasts about 3 months, and it's wireless, too. The NiMH rechargeable batteries I have don't last as long, for some strange reason.

I should buy Logitech stock.

To summarize: I hate my current mouse; must seek another, one more worthy; desire a wireless mouse; forever fan of Logitech. What to do? What to do? Maybe I should go back to my trusty MX1000. Of course, it needed feeding (via docking station) on a regular basis, as well. That was why I "upgraded" to start with.

I can see I won't be pleased, at least anytime soon.